Though his bed burned, Terrance Trevillian had a place to sleep Sunday night jail.

The 49-year-old man was booked on first-degree arson, said Lt. Mike Zambriski, an investigator with the Spokane Fire Department.

As Zambriski examined damage from a downtown fire on Sunday morning, Trevillian was trying to turn himself in at the Spokane County Jail.

Using matches and pages from a phone book, Trevillian allegedly started two small fires in his roughly 9-by-12-foot room, Zambriski said.

On the third floor of the Washington Hotel, the room contained little more than a television, some clothes and a bed, which doubled as a couch, Zambriski said.

The battery in the room’s smoke alarm had been removed, said Spokane Fire Battalion Chief Joe Stapleton.

Though the fire didn’t spread beyond Trevillian’s room, it was hot enough to set off the sprinkler system in the building at 327-1/2 W. Second. Fire engines arrived around 10:15 a.m. after being notified by a fire-alarm company that monitors the building. No one called 911, Stapleton said.

Within an hour and a half, Trevillian turned himself in to the jail. Jailers called Zambriski, who raced over and interviewed the man.

There had been a fire in Trevillian’s apartment, Zambriski told the man.

“I set the fire,” Trevillian said, according to Zambriski.

Trevillian was very calm and said no more. He is a suspect in another another downtown apartment building fire that was set in July, Zambriski said.

, DataTimes

Published: Oct. 13, 1997, midnight

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